Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Donald Trump “that India has never accepted third-party mediation and will not accept such mediation”, the phone conversation on Wednesday morning India time coming before the US President hosts Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir for lunch.
Trump asked Modi if he could visit the US on his return from Canada. Modi expressed his inability citing prior programmes, according to foreign secretary Vikram Misri.
This was the first conversation between Trump and Modi after the pause in Operation Sindoor last month, Misri said.
“PM Modi clarified that no topics related to trade were discussed in connection with Operation Sindoor. He asserted that India has never accepted third-party mediation and will not accept such mediation in the future,” the foreign secretary said.
Modi told Trump that India responded on the intervening night of May 9-10 strongly to Pakistan’s attack, which led to heavy losses to Pakistan’s military infrastructure and rendered their airbases inoperable. The prime minister also told the US President that India’s strong response to Pakistan forced it to urge India to stop the military campaign.
Modi told Trump clearly that in this entire chain of events of Operation Sindoor there was no discussion of an India-US trade deal and there was no reference to US mediation between India and Pakistan, Misri said.
The prime minister made it clear that the decision to halt military action was taken in direct talks between India and Pakistan using the existing channels and at the insistence of Islamabad.
Misri said Trump understood the issue after hearing the prime minister and expressed support for India’s fight against terrorism.
“Modi told Trump that henceforth India will not treat terrorism as a proxy war but as an act of war, and Operation Sindoor was still continuing,” Misri said.
Misri said Modi and Trump were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting, but it could not fructify as the US President left early.
He said Trump insisted on having a conversation with Modi, after which the call was set up.
The Congress highlighted President Trump’s reported lunch with the Pakistan Army chief due later on Wednesday. Field Marshal Asim Munir is expected to drop in at the White House for lunch with Trump at 1pm EDT, ANI reported.
“President Trump is hosting Gen Asim Munir for lunch,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera posted. “Not just the Bhakt Brigade, a fraud power broker whose knowledge of history can be written behind the matchbox which he uses to smoke weed, leading anchors too had trolled my party colleagues, accusing them of spreading fake news about Gen Asim Munir being in the USA. Now that the news has turned out to be true, a piece of advice to journalists and anchors : There comes a time when you have to choose between loving your country and loving your government. That time came long ago.”
Khera reposted a post by his senior party colleague Jairam Ramesh: “So now it can no longer be denied by the drumbeaters of the PM and the BJP’s troll army. The man whose incendiary, inflammatory, and provocative remarks were directly linked to the Pahalgam terror attacks is now officially in Washington DC. The question we had asked earlier needs to be repeated: what is America up to by hosting Asim Munir in this manner? Why are the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister silent on this outrageous American outreach to Pakistan?”.